Final Requiem
by eidolondestroyer
Summary: My version of Anakin's turning to the dark side. The odd thing about the transition from light to dark is that you do it to stay in the light, as Anakin finds out. Please read and review!
1. First Requiem

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars. If I did, Jar Jar Binks would never have existed. There lies in the proof of my not owning Star Wars (That and not being one of the richest people on the face of the planet). George Lucas owns the whole franchise, so you can blame him for the last two movies. Or thank him, if you, you know, liked the movies.

A robed and hooded figure slowly moved down a long and generic hallway, moving with a certain air of determination. The figure's lone companion in his walk was the sound of his boots landing onto the floor, but he had to strain his ears to even hear that, as he had long ago learned to walk with an unnerving stealth. As he neared the end of the hallway he paused for a brief moment. He then continued to walk until he no longer could, his path obstructed by a door. His hand briefly appeared and raced across a nearby keypad before it disappeared back into his robe. The keypad buzzed indignantly, telling him that his code was invalid. He had to quell a flare up of anger within him upon seeing this.

_There is no emotion; there is peace._

The figure was irritated by the door's refusal to open, but he would not let it defeat him. The figure quickly flicked his hand and from his robes came a thin silver cylinder. An intense beam of blue light shot forth from the cylinder and as the item neared the figure's open hand the beam easily slashed through the door, making a perfect diagonal cut. The figure then grabbed the item and created another cut in the door, forming an X pattern. The figure brought out his open hand and shot it in the direction of the door. An invisible force manipulated the door and the four separate segments burst forward. Upon landing on the floor they skidded across the ground before finally coming to a stop, alerting everything within the room of the figure's presence.

_There is no ignorance; there is knowledge._

One of the many droids in the room began to clumsily walk over to the robed figure, obviously too stupid to realize a threat when it saw one.

"State your business here." It asked in a grating mechanical tone.

"My name is Anakin Skywalker. I'm here to see Nute Gunray." Anakin said passively, deceptively. He didn't want to reveal his vendetta of vengeance.

"Access is denied. I apologize." With a clean sweep of the hand holding his lightsaber Anakin then showed how forgiving he was. The droid collapsed to the ground, a pile of useless metal and circuitry. A number of security droids noticed this and fired a barrage of lasers at Anakin, each hitting the Padawan dead on. However, they did not harm him. Anakin felt the energy of the lasers flow into him, and he used the excess energy the lasers created to propel the security droids against a wall with such force that they too collapsed to the floor, their once intricate and detailed parts smoldering ruins.

_There is no passion; there is serenity._

Anakin then charged to the opposite end of the room, destroying a door that blocked access into a private chamber. Within the chamber was a very nervous looking Nemoidian. More nervous looking than usual, that is. The Nemoidian cowered in a corner of the room, desperately pleading for his life, wondering what he had done to incur such wrath…recently.

"Padme. You tried to kill her." The Nemoidian acted as though he did not know what Anakin was talking about, but even had he not his fate was sealed. The bright blade of the lightsaber passed through his neck, searing the flesh it came in contact with. Nute's eyes glazed over and he fell to the ground, much like the droids. Unlike the droides though, his life ended and death claimed his soul. No.

"There is no death; there is the Force." Anakin whispered to the corpse before walking back out, his robes trailing behind him.

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Author's Note- Well, what did you think? Unless I actually get reviews this will be a one-shot thing and won't continue. So, please review!


	2. Shadows Within Light

            Supreme Chancellor Palpatine sat in a lush and comfortable chair with his eyes closed, pondering the state of the galaxy. He was the most powerful person in the Republic, yet that did not say as much as Palpatine would have wished. When he inherited the position of Supreme Chancellor from Valorum, he had thought he could fix the Republic's problems and regain lost power. None of that happened. All Palpatine inherited was the leadership to an aging, ineffectual government in a power struggle. There were so many others whose power rivaled that of Palpatine's. It was a result of the widespread corruption that infected the Senate and the Republic as a whole. It was a plague upon the galaxy, but it could be beneficial to Palpatine. He had big plans, and when they had all been accomplished, this pathetic power void would be gone, filled by none other than Palpatine.

            Yet there were so many key players in the struggle, that Palpatine by himself was unable to make all of his plans come to fruition. That was where people like Anakin Skywalker came in. It wasn't often that Palpatine came by people who would do mercenary work free of charge, and it was rarer still to find people that could be sculpted in Palpatine's image. Anakin was both of these, and that was why he would play an important role in Palpatine's bid for absolute power. That was also why Palpatine had to check to make sure that young Skywalker stayed subservient. It wouldn't do if the apprentice became the master, and Anakin had the power necessary to do so. He had so much raw power. If it were refined and if he were able to tap into all of it, he would be unstoppable. Palpatine would have to keep Anakin's power in check, but the most important thing was stopping the growth of dangerous ideas.

            The door to Palpatine's chambers then hissed open and the Supreme Chancellor opened his eyes to see Anakin cross the room. Palpatine smiled faintly and proceeded to question the Jedi-in-training.

            "So, was my information correct?" he asked. Anakin had confronted Palpatine earlier, and had said he needed to talk with Nute Gunray. Palpatine knew what he really wanted to do, yet he gave the data to Anakin anyway.

            "For the most part." Anakin replied. "The location was correct, but the codes to the door were not."

            "I'll have to talk with my sources about that then. Just out of curiosity, whatever did you need to discuss with Nute Gunray so badly?"

            "Oh, it was…personal matters."

            "So I won't find him decapitated in his own office?" Palpatine then asked, and Anakin appeared rather shocked. "Don't worry, my friend. There were some suspicions that it was the work of a Jedi, but I quickly suggested that it was Count Dooku instead. Everyone knew of their affiliation and believed that Dooku killed him for his failures, and he had quite a few of them." Using one of the Jedi's infamous mind tricks had helped as well. To make sure no one ever knew of Palpatine's command of the Force he had used a Jedi who had fallen prey to the dark side.

            Not that there was a dark side of the Force. Palpatine knew the true nature of the Force. There was no light side or dark side, only the Force. It was merely how the user chose to utilize its awesome power that mattered. The Jedi Council was foolish in their teachings. The idea of a light and dark side of the Force was merely an illusion of the Jedi, used to make them feel morally superior and to constantly keep them from seeking the true peak of their power. This meant that so long as Anakin remained amongst the ranks of the Jedi he would never reach his true potential. That was good for Palpatine, but at the same time Anakin's usefulness was limited by the Jedi Council. For Palpatine, it was a trade-off. Increase Ankain's usefulness and give him more power, or restrain his power and decrease his usefulness. As things were, Palpatine needed Anakin to stay with the Jedi. When his plans were further along, however, it would be time to "corrupt" Skywalker.

            When Palpatine had finished that line of thought, he realized that Anakin was leaving.

            "Do send my regards to Amidala and the Jedi Council." he said to the swiftly retreating form of Anakin, "And offer my condolences to the former as well."

            Senator Amidala "Padme" Skywalker glanced around at the sterile settings of the hospital room she was in before looking at the equally sterile bandages wrapped around her left leg. Despite her urges to just get up and leave this place of uniform white, the medical droid had specifically told her to just lie down and allow her leg to heal. At times she thought of lifting the bandages to see how the wound was healing, but then she remembered the rather grotesque image of it before the bandages had gone on.

            In a rather desperate gambit Nute Gunray had attempted another assassination on Padme, and the attempt had nearly become success. Padme had been able to walk away from that incident, but only with Anakin's help. By the time Anakin had come and foiled the scheme it was too late for Padme to go unschathed, and the shot wound up hitting Padme in the leg. Padme's leg would heal perfectly, and no permanent damage had come to her, or anyone else, yet since then Anakin had seemed distant. He seemed as though he blamed himself for not having stopped the assassin in time, and while he did try to cover that up, he was so transparent in his attempt. He did visit Padme every day, if he was still actually on Coruscant, but that was all he did. He would walk across the room, make small talk, sit silently for half an hour, and then leave.

            The door to Padme's room then opened, and Anakin strode in for his daily visit. As always he walked to the corner of the room furthest from Padme and began to speak.

            "Palpatine says hello, and sorry about your leg. And I…I'm sorry about your leg as well."

            "That makes three of us then." Padme said, trying to bring some cheer to the melancholy Anakin. "But…this isn't your fault, you know that, right?" she then asked, and Anakin just stood silently for a while.

            "Maybe. But I could have prevented this as well. I should have known that Gunray would try again. I should have been able to stop him.

            "Don't worry about Nute Gunray anymore though. He was found dead in his office today." Hearing this Padme shot up from her bed, ignoring the intense pain in her leg.

            "Anakin, you…you didn't-"

            "Kill him? No, you know me better than that Padme." Hearing this Padme was unswayed. She still remembered Anakin's confession of having killed an entire tribe of Tusken Raiders in retaliation for the death of his mother. Regardless, Anakin went on. "The general belief is that Dooku was the culprit. After a string of failures, one of which cost Dooku a large percentage of his fleet, as you remember, it would make sense. Dooku isn't exactly the forgive and forget type." That did make sense to Padme. Whenever Gunray was in charge of a Seperatist mission the Republic would make a collective sigh of relief. He always failed. Always. By now any contributions had to have been erased through his general military incompetence. As far as fiscal matters went he was quite clever, but military tactics were not his strong suit.

            It was then that the pain in Padme's leg became unbearable, and she lied down again, not wanting to delay the recuperative process. When she had gotten comfortable again, she looked over to where Anakin had been standing and realized that he had left.

            Anakin listened to the constant hum of his lightsabers, and he listened even more intently as the humming rose and fell in pitch as he moved them through the air. He created bright blue and green arcs as the swords sliced through the air. Ever since his battle with Dooku, he had trained almost unceasingly with his lightsaber, and he would also set aside time to practice using dual lightsabers, and he had become quite good at the practice, but not good enough to strike down the dark lord, and that was the only level of greatness he wanted. Nothing less would do.

            He then heard the soft footsteps behind him, undoubtedly belonging to his mentor and master.

            "What do you want. Master?" he asked, almost straining the last word. He had done so ever since the Dark Reaper Project. Something had changed in him, or maybe it was more that something within him had risen to the surface, but ever since he hadn't respected Obi-Wan any where near as much as he had before.

            "The Council has assigned us to accompany a clone strike team."

            "Again? Master, we've done at least five of those missions in the past month. Why are we given the same menial task all the time?"

            "Anakin, no task is menial, or trivial, for anyone. Such thoughts…"

            "Lead to the dark side. I know, I know. It's just, we're the only one getting these missions. Other teams are sent off to lead whole fleets into battle, yet here we are accompanying them, no greater than ordinary foot soldiers."

            "Perhaps the Council doesn't want to overwhelm you. You have a lot on your mind right now, my young apprentice." Those last words hit Anakin hard. He hated it profoundly when Obi-Wan called him his young apprentice. It made him feel so tiny, hardly near the level of power he had attained. Anakin truly believed that he had surpassed Obi-Wan in every way, and that Obi-Wan was merely jealous of his power. That was why he always accepted these pathetic missions, and declined on the more exciting ones. If Anakin could just get a chance to prove himself to the Council, then maybe he could undergo the trials. But as long as Obi-Wan kept holding him back he would never actually be a Jedi, just a Padawan, walking in his master's shadow, despite having long outgrown that shadow.

            "Whatever you say Master." Anakin said in reply to Obi-Wan, and he grudgingly followed his master towards their next mission.

**Author's Note**- Yes, I know, it took forever to get this latest update out, but what can I say? I did get reviews, but not as many as I had initially been going for. If I get five reviews, I'll go on, if not, it will just take longer to update. I wouldn't actually make this solely dependent on number of readers. I just need to know that there are actually people reading this, that's all.


	3. Second Requiem

            A short and green-skinned alien hobbled around a large chamber, leaning heavily on a cane. Mace Windu watched the figure walk around intently. How ironic it was, that one of the most powerful and respected beings in the galaxy appeared so fragile and weak to the inobservant eye. But beneath that shell laid an awesome power. Then there was the person who was an antipode to Master Yoda, a person who appeared strong, who seemed strong, and who said he was strong, and even believed he was strong, but in the end was ultimately weak. That person was Chancellor Palpatine. But, Mace often wondered to himself, was Palpatine even more complex than Yoda, seeming strong to the inobservant eye, seeming weak to the observant eye, yet strong in the end? There was something within Palpatine, some hidden element that refused to show itself.

            Mace then turned to the other figure within the room. He was fairly tall, with a cream-colored tunic and a youthful beard growing on his face. Obi-Wan had been summoned here by Palpatine himself, an urgent matter that needed to be discussed before he and Anakin left on their mission. Mace was surprised that Anakin hadn't come along within him, or perhaps it was just that Anakin was hiding in the shadows like he did on occasion. Mace stretched out with the Force and sure enough he felt Anakin's presence. His presence was as subtle as a raging whirlwind to the Force, he had so much power, most of it still raw power, and destiny too raged around him. Mace squinted into the darkest portion of the room and was able to discern a silhouette within that had Anakin's basic body frame. After doing so Mace then returned his attention to the meeting.

            "Unlike Dooku, this is." Yoda said, speaking knowingly of his former apprentice. Mace couldn't help but agree, after Nute Gunray's death almost a quarter of the Seperatist fleet had fallen into disarray. The Trade Federation had also pulled its resources out of the war, calling it a lost cause. Yet Palpatine continued pressing on with his argument.

            "Are you saying that Count Dooku, dark lord of the Sith, would not go so low as to kill Nute Gunray. I find that hard to believe. 'Discipline, discipline is all. It conquers pain, it conquers fear. Most importantly, it conquers failure.' Is that not the Sith philosophy?" Palpatine said the words with such power. He was a very charismatic individual. Mace thought less of his charisma though, and more of his knowledge of Sith teachings. Few Jedi even bothered to learn such things, why did Palpatine know it so easily?

            "Kill Gunray, Dooku would. Be unprepared for the aftermath, he would not." Yoda stated adamantly. Palpatine was forced to acknowledge the words. Count Dooku was a very calculating individual, and he would have prepared for the ensuing events of Nute Gunray's death had he been wanting to kill the Nemoidian. After giving that some thought Palpatine quickly had his rebuttal.

            "Perhaps this is all part of a grander plan for Dooku. Maybe he is weeding out the weaker elements of his organization, appearing to be on the verge of collapse but stronger than ever. The Trade Federation might have brought a considerable amount of money to the Seperatists, but they took out quite a bit of money to maintain their fleet as well. Having them was a minimal gain situation. Letting them go wouldn't hurt too much." Mace was wary of Palpatine's words, they seemed so eager to be believed. He was hiding something, but what? With politicians the answer to such a question was never easy.

            Anakin trailed after Obi-Wan as they left the High Council chambers. Palpatine had been having a hard time explaining Gunray's death, and when Mace looked at him near the beginning, it was as though he had been peering straight into Anakin's soul. Had he found out that it was Anakin who killed Gunray? Surely not, the entire time he had controlled his thoughts to prevent anyone from figuring that out. But Mace Windu was a powerful Jedi who would easily see through such barriers.

            "Is everything all right? You seem rather tense." Anakin's head jerked in Obi-Wan's direction and he was able to notice the rigid stance he had unconsciously adopted. He dropped back into a more casual stance and instinctively shook his head.

            "No Master, everything is just fine. I've just been…thinking."

            "About Padme you mean?" Anakin cringed at the words. No matter where he went he was reminded of Padme's injury, of his failure. Every time he heard her name it was like getting a slap in the face. He should've been there, he should've have stopped it before it could happen. Obi-Wan immediately took notice of this and let the subject drop. The two continued to walk in silence until they reached the hangar, where the silence became too awkward for Obi-Wan to handle.

            "It's not your fault. You know that, right?" Obi-Wan pointed out, and once more a look of shame spread across Anakin's face.

            "Of course it's my fault, Master. I could have been there, I could have saved her entirely. She shouldn't have even been injured.

            "Anakin, it's not your-"

            "Shut up! You don't know what you're talking about! When I say 'there', I don't mean at the scene of the shooting. I mean 'there', in front of the blaster." A look of realization dawned across Obi-Wan's face, and then a confused look came upon it again.

            "What do you mean?"

            "I arrived a few seconds before the shot was fired. I didn't have time to deflect the bolt with my lightsaber, but I could have leapt out in front of the blaster and taken the hit. But…I choked and got scared. In the moment Padme needed me the most, I choked. All I could do was shift the assassin's aim." Obi-Wan fully realized what was going on then. For months Anakin had been perfecting the art of energy absorption. By the time of the assassination attempt he would almost always absorb a blaster bolt, and on occasion could absorb indirect lightsaber damage. "I was afraid that I wouldn't absorb it, that it would actually hurt me, and because of my selfishness, Padme is trapped in a hospital, waiting for her leg to heal."

            "Anakin, the important thing is that she's still alive. And that is only because f you."

            "I know, Master. But-"

            "No, no 'buts', no matter what else you may think, you did come through for her when it counted. Now then, come on. Our transport will leave without us if we don't board soon." And with that they walked up the ramp to one of the many Republic gunships.

            Anakin looked around at his surroundings. He looked at the clone troopers, and as always he got an unsettling feeling when he did so. It was so strange, looking at them. They all looked the exact same on the outside, and Anakin knew that even beneath the armor they were all the same. That they all looked like a dead man made things even worse.

            After he could simply not tolerate looking at the clone troopers anymore his gaze wandered downward to the floor, and he began to mentally determine the distance between specks of dust. Just finding dust was a difficulty in itself, the gunships were so clean. They reminded him of hospitals. Hospitals…Padme… Anakin shook his head, dispelling the thoughts. They wouldn't do him any good. He had to focus on the mission at hand.

            "And why, exactly, should I employ you for this job?" A deep voice asked to a shadowy figure.

            "Because I'm the best there is." answered a youthful voice.

            "A child, the best there is? Ha! Do you have any idea of what kind of profession this is, little boy?"

            "I know all about the bounty hunter profession. I was raised in it."

            "Do not waste my time, little boy. You should learn to respect others. Now then…Mr., and I do say 'Mr.' lightly, Fett, I would ask that you go, before I have to do something I don't want to do."

            "I'm not leaving until I have this job."

            "So be it." The man then proceeded to push a button under his desk and two security guards immediately entered into the room. The child looked at them and a look of innocence played across his face. The guards hesitated and let their blasters drop to the ground. Boba Fett then smiled wickedly. He quickly pulled out two silver blaster pistols and fired off two shots. The first caught one of the guards right in the heart and he dropped to the ground dead, and the second was hit in the throat. He dropped to the ground desperately trying to breathe for a few seconds before slowly stopping then lying still altogether. The man at the desk was clearly shocked by the display.

            Boba then turned back around to him, leveled his blasters and shot him through both eyes. The man collapsed to the ground, two trails of smoke exiting from where his retinas had been.

            A man standing amongst the shadows then began to clap and stepped forward.

            "Well done, young bounty hunter. Consider the job yours. Now then, you'll understand that for your little show here I'll have to dock your pay a bit, but how does a hundred thousand credits sound?" Boba stared menacingly at the man, and without words rejected the offer.

            "Two hundred thousand. No less. You refuse, you join them." Boba then gestured at the three corpses strewn across the floor with his blasters and the man laughed.

            "Well then. Feisty, are we? Fine, my master does appreciate such boldness, even in scum such as yourself. I'll go as high as one hundred fifty thousand. No higher." The two stared at each other before Boba lifted his blasters and shot the man, but only in the leg. The man fell to the floor and clutched at his wound, but he refused to show any other signs of pain.

            "Deal." Boba concluded, and after taking a datapad with the mission specs on top of the desk in the room he walked out, back into the night city of Coruscant.


End file.
